1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the personal safety devices and, more specifically, to devices for providing an alarm or distress signal upon activation by the user in order to, for example, deter an attack or to summon assistance.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a large number of personal safety devices currently available. These devices may be generally thought of as falling into two categories: (1) weapons, such as guns, mace, etc.; and (2) alarm and similar deterrence devices such as devices which produce audible alarms when activated by the user. The preferred embodiment of the present invention falls into the latter category.
In reviewing alarm products which are currently commercially available, a number of shortcomings have been noted. It is an object of the present invention to overcome such shortcomings. Perhaps, these shortcomings will be best understood by detailing what is now considered to be desirable features of a personal safety device.
(1) The device should produce an audible signal which will deter an attacker. It is desirable that the audible signal itself be offensive to the hearing of an attacker, rather than simply causing the attacker to fear having attention brought to the attack by the signal. In this way, the attacker may terminate the attack even if there is no other persons within hearing range to respond to the signal; PA1 (2) The device should produce an audible signal which will attrack the attention of other persons who may come to the aid of the user of the device. To this end it is desirable for the device to produce an audible signal which can be heard at relatively long distances and which will attract the attention of other persons. It is also desirable to produce an audible signal which differentiates from other alarms found in today's products such as car alarms, smoke detectors, home security alarms, etc.; PA1 (3) The device should be easy to carry in a manner which allows it to be readily available for activation; PA1 (4) The device should be easy to activate in unexpected circumstances. It is desirable for the device to be designed to allow activation when held in any of number of orientations and, further, that the device be activated easily, for example, through some natural or intuitive response to an emergency situation; PA1 (5) The device should be difficult for persons other than the intended user to deactivate; PA1 (6) The device should be easily deactivated by the intended user so that, for example, it may be shut-off readily if accidently activated or if the user determines the audible signal produced by the device is escalating the level of an attack; and PA1 (7) The device should be designed to prevent false activations (false alarms) from occurring. PA1 (1) the speakers are placed to focus sound in directions generally opposite of each other thereby providing for broader sound coverage than with known personal safety devices employing, for example, a single speaker; PA1 (2) the speakers are placed sufficiently far apart such that a human hand cannot cover both speakers at the same time thereby making it difficult to cover the both speakers simultaneously with a single hand in order to muffle the sound emitted by the speakers; and PA1 (3) the device is activated by gripping (or, possibly, more appropriately squeezing) depressing a bar located on the tubular central section of the device--by locating the bar on the tubular central section, the bar is readily accessible by the user when the device is held in any of a number of natural orientations. PA1 (1) the microprocessor may be utilized to produce digital signals which result in complex and unique tones being produced by the device; PA1 (2) the microprocessor may be utilized to control deactivation of the device such that, once activated, the device can only be deactivated by a person knowing and entering a predetermined deactivation code; and PA1 (3) the microprocessor may be utilized, in conjunction with detection circuitry disclosed herein, to detect and notify of certain faulty conditions in the device such as a low battery; and PA1 (4) the microprocessor may control activation, as will be described, in order to avoid false alarms or false activations.
Turning back to the known commercially available products, these products generally do not adequately provide for the above-described desirable features. For example, such known commercial products do not provide for an audible signal which is sufficient to deter an attack either due to having insufficient volume, poor sound composition to accomplish deterrence, or both.
Further, the sounds produced by such devices tend to be similar to sounds produced by other types of alarms (e.g., car alarms, home burglar alarms, etc.), thus not providing a distinguishable sound which is likely to draw the attention of persons who might come to the assistance of the user of the device.
Still further, known devices do not provide adequate methods for activation of the device. Lack of adequate methods of activation may render the device ineffective in many situations. Even if activated, such devices are often easily deactivated by an attacker. Other devices may be more difficult for an attacker to deactivate but prove to be difficult for the intended user of the device to deactivate also.
Examples of known activation methods include a simple switch. A simple switch is, of course, relatively easy to activate by the intended user of the device, if the device is properly oriented at the time when the user wishes to activate the device. However, in the likely event that the device is not properly oriented in the users hand at the time the user wishes to activate the device, the user must use valuable seconds orienting the device before it can be activated. Another example of an activation mechanism is a pull string or lanyard which is pulled out of the device in order to activate it. This type of activation mechanism typically requires two hands to activate--one to pull on the string and the other to hold onto the device. Further, if accidently activated, the device requires a certain amount of coordination to reinsert the string in order to deactivate the device. If the string is misplaced, deactivation is even more difficult.
It is also noted that removal of batteries from the known devices is relatively simple and that such removal will result in deactivation of the device.
One specific device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,892 titled Alarm Device. This device is described as a multipurpose device which may be activated by use of a manually operated switch or, alternatively, by use of a circuit which includes a switch which is closed, for example, upon detecting heat (such as fire) or upon detect movement (such as movement of a door). The manual switch located along one side of the unit and is described as being of the double-throw type in which one position is neutral position, one position causes a light bulb to light and one position causes an alarm to sound. Therefore, as understood, the described device requires orientation of the device in a manner such that a finger can rotate the manual switch in one direction in order to activate the device. Further, the device may be easily deactivated by simply moving the switch back to its normal position. Still further, the sound produced by the device is simply described as a loud noise; however, there is no teaching of the sound characteristics disclosed by the present invention which lead to both deterrence of an attacker and attraction of third-parties. The sound making device is described as having a screw-threaded adjustment means for adjustment purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will be better understood with reference to the Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment, the accompanying drawings, and the claims.